Governor of steam-engines



NPETERS. PHOTO-LITHOGRAPNER. WASHINGTON; D. C. y

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

A. F. WARD, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

GOVERNOR OF STEAM-ENGINES, &o.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 17,817, dated July 14, 1857.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, A. F. WARD, of Louisville, Vin the county of Jeersonand State of Kentucky, Vhave invented a new and useful Improvement inGovernors for Steam- Engines; and I do hereby declare that the followingis a'full, clear, and exact descri tion of the same, reference being hadto t e accompanying drawings, forming part of this specication, inwhich- Figure 1 is an elevation partly in section, of a governor with myimprovement. Fig. 2, is a sectional view taken at right angles to Fig.1, of the head of the governor shaft and the connection of the governorrod. Fig. 3, is a to view of the same.

Sl arletters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

The object of my invention is to make the governor effective inregulating the speed of i the engine under greater variations of theload than can be compensated for by the common arrangement ofconnections with the regulating valve.

This invention consists in the arrangement and employment of adouble-armed screw socket, clutch, and friction socket, in the mannerhereinafter described.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willproceed to describe its construction and operation.

A is a stationary pillar which supports all the working parts of thegovernor, said pillar being supposed to be bolted to the engine framingor to any suitable support.

B, is the main spindle of the governor, fitted .to the interior of thegovernor A. It is hollow and made with a broad head xB',

which is constructed with two cross-pieces b, b, which receive thetransverse pin a, on which swing the governor arms c, c, carrying theballs C, C. The arms c, c, are provided at a suitable distance from thepin a, with toothed segments s, s, described from the center of a, saidsegment gearing with two toothed racks 1*, 1', attached rigidly to ahorizontal rin d, which is secured to a yoke e, to which t e governorrod f, is connected in such a manner as to turn freely within it. Thisrod fits to guides within the spindle B, and t e lower part of thepillar A. By the action of the segments s, s, on the toothed racks r,1', the balls are made to act on thegovernor rod f, so as to produce thesame edect as any ordinary governor connection, that is to say, to actupon the regulating valve or cut-off to the extent necessary to controlthe speed of the engine under all minor variations of its load, or ofthe pressure of steam in the boiler.

The connection of the governor rod f, with the regulating valve or otherdevice by which the supply of steam is regulated, is effected byproviding the lower portion of the rod with a male screw f', and fittingthe said screw with a female screwed socket h, to the lower part ofwhich a rod i, is connected by a swivel joint. This rod "i, connectswith the valve or other device aforesaid. It is obvious that by turningthe rod f, while the socket h, is held stationary the length from theconnection of the said rod with the yoke e, to the lower end of the rodi, must be increased or diminished. This mode of completing theconnection is not, however, new, but it is the means of turning the rodf, which constitute the invention.

D, is a metal socket fitted to turn in a bearing m, m, in the bottom ofthe pillar A. This socket seceives within it the socket h, which isfitted to it with a square or feather so as to slide up and down but notturn within it. The socket D, is provided with a fixed collar y', at thetop, which rests on the to of its bearing in the pillar A, and is fittedbe ow the pillar with a movable collar k. Below the movable collar lc, astrong spring g, is coiled around the socket D, and this spring iscompressed between the collar k, and a nut Z, at the bottom of thesocket in such a manner as to draw down the collar y', and force u thecollar 7c, 'into contact with the to an bottom of its bearing m, m inthe pil ar, with sufficient force to roduce an amount of frictionbetween the soc iet D, and its bearing greater than the friction of thescrew f, in the socket h, so that said screw may turn without turningthe socket D.

E, is a horizontal shaft by which the gov- -ernor is driven, said shaftworking in a bearing in the pillar A, and receiving a rotary `motionthrough a band from the engine to its pulley E, and giving rotary motionto the governor spindle by a bevel wheel G, gearing with a spindle B.

I, is a bevel wheel fitted loosely to the governor rod f, and resting ona fixed saddle J, provided for the purpose in the pillar.

This wheel I, gears with G, and derives a continuous rotary motiontherefrom in the opppsite direction to the wheel H. The wheel carries apin fr, with a beveled point and the wheel I, a similar pin o, and thegovernor rod f, carries a clutch p, whose edges are beveled like thepoints of the pins n, o, which clutch, when the rod is moved up or downbeyond the limited distance which is necessary to the ordinary action ofthe governor, comes in contact with the pin n, or o, and thus causes therod f, (which, during the ordinary action of the governor, does notrotate) to rotate in one direction or the other and thus to turn thescrew f, in the female screw socket h, and cause the said socket to beraised or lowered, thus lengthening or shortening the governorconnection, and by that means increasing or diminishing the supply ofsteam to a greater eX- tent than is done by the simple action of thegovernor balls.

To illustrate the operation of the improvement, I will suppose thegovernor to rotate in the direction of the arrow shown on the lower partof the spindle B, in Fig. 1, and the arrangement of the regulating valveto be such th at the supply of steam is increased by the elongation ofthe governor connection and diminished by the shortening thereof. Whenthe governor has been adjusted to run the engine at a given speed with agiven load and a given pressure of steam in the boiler, the clutch pwill continue to rotate clear of the pins n, o, so long as the variationof the load or pressure is only very slight and the regulation of theengine will be effected by the action of the balls without varying thelength of the connection. If, however, the load be increased veryconsiderably, the balls will fall far enough. to carry down the clutchp, till the pin 0, strikes it and carries the rod f, in the oppositedirection to the governor, causing the screw j, to work in the screwsocket p, and force the said socket downward, thus elongating theconnection with the valve until the engine receives steam enough tovbring the engine up to the desired velocity, when the balls raise theclutch Y clear of the pin o. If, on the contrary, the load of the enginebe suddenly diminished and the balls iy out far enough to bring theclutch p, in contact with the pin n, the rod f, will be turned, by theaction of said pin on the clutch, in the reverse direction to that firstmentioned and thereby will raise up the female screw socket h, and thusshorten the connection till the supply of steam is checked or out offsufficiently to bring the engine back to the required speed. In order,however, to stop the further elongation or contraction of theconnection, if the full head of steam should be let on or the steamshould be entirely cut o before the clutch t, and by that means thesocket 711,.

and the socket D, also, are caused to rotate with the rod f. Or if`V thesocket h should work up high enough to shut off the steam entirely, thearm g, is raised high enough to be struck by the clutch which acts, asbefore stated, t o carry around the sockets h, and D, till the velocityis reduced.

I do not claim as new in governors, the employment of a screw, operatedin different directions by a self-acting clutch; the said screw raisingor lowering a unt or socket which is connnected by a rod to thethrottle-valve. An example of such' an arrangement may be seen in thewithdrawn application of Samuel P. Brown, 1855. Another example may beseen in the waterwheel governor of J as. Finlay, 1849. In neither of theabove examples is the nut or socket provided with double arms; nor isany friction socket employed as in my improvements. For want of theseparts, the nut, in Browns device, is liable to be run off the screw-rodand the throttle-valve entirely disconnected from the governor; again,the nut is liable to be run up above the screw-thread, and there wornout or jammed; thus preventing its proper action a at the needed moment.This latter diiculty is also apparent in Finlays device. But myarrangement of double-armed socket clutch, and friction socket, rendersthe action of the regulating nut or socket certain in both directions,without a chance of failure.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The arrangement of the friction socket D, the female-screw socket h,with its arms g, q, and the clutch t, on the governor rod f, the wholecombining to operate as described so that the female-screw socket 7L,may be prevented turning till the full supply of steam is given or tillthe steam is cut 0H entirely and afterward be caused to turn with thegovernor rod.

A. F. WARD. Witnesses:

J. C. BAIRD, JAS. HARRIS.

